1. Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for optically probing integrated circuits by switching of an electronic elements in the device under test (DUT). The invention relates to identifying, localizing, and classifying malfunctioning elements.
2. Related Art
Probing systems have been used in the art for testing and debugging integrated circuit (IC) designs and layouts. Various emission and laser-based systems for probing IC's are known in the prior art. While some description of the prior art is provided herein, the reader is encouraged to also review U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,208,648, 5,220,403, 5,940,545, 6,943,572, 7,012,537, 7,038,442, 7,224,828, and 7,323,862, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Additional related information can be found in Yee, W. M., et al. Laser Voltage Probe (LVP): A Novel Optical Probing Technology for Flip-Chip Packaged Microprocessors, in International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA), 2000, p 3-8; Bruce, M. et al. Waveform Acquisition from the Backside of Silicon Using Electro-Optic Probing, in International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA), 1999, p 19-25; Kolachina, S. et al. Optical Waveform Probing—Strategies for Non-Flipchip Devices and Other Applications, in International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA), 2001, p 51-57; Soref, R. A. and B. R. Bennett, Electrooptical Effects in Silicon. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 1987. QE-23(1): p. 123-9; Kasapi, S., et al., Laser Beam Backside Probing of CMOS Integrated Circuits. Microelectronics Reliability, 1999. 39: p. 957; Wilsher, K., et al. Integrated Circuit Waveform Probing Using Optical Phase Shift Detection, in International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA), 2000, p 479-85; Heinrich, H. K., Picosecond Noninvasive Optical Detection of Internal Electrical Signals in Flip-Chip-Mounted Silicon Integrated Circuits. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 1990. 34(2/3): p. 162-72; Heinrich, H. K., D. M. Bloom, and B. R. Hemenway, Noninvasive sheet charge density probe for integrated silicon devices. Applied Physics Letters, 1986. 48(16): p. 1066-1068; Heinrich, H. K., D. M. Bloom, and B. R. Hemenway, Erratum to Noninvasive sheet charge density probe for integrated silicon devices. Applied Physics Letters, 1986. 48(26): p. 1811; Heinrich, H. K., et al., Measurement of real-time digital signals in a silicon bipolar junction transistor using a noninvasive optical probe. IEEE Electron Device Letters, 1986. 22(12): p. 650-652; Hemenway, B. R., et al., Optical detection of charge modulation in silicon integrated circuits using a multimode laser-diode probe. IEEE Electron Device Letters, 1987. 8(8): p. 344-346; A. Black, C. Courville, G Schultheis, H. Heinrich, Optical Sampling of GHz Charge Density Modulation in SIlicon Bipolar Junction Transistors Electronics Letters, 1987, Vol. 23, No. 15, p. 783-784, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and Kindereit U, Boit C, Kerst U, Kasapi S, Ispasoiu R, Ng R, Lo W, Comparison of Laser Voltage Probing and Mapping Results in Oversized and Minimum Size Devices of 120 nm and 65 nm Technology, Microelectronics Reliability 48 (2008) 1322-1326, 19th European Symposium on Reliability of Electron Devices, Failure Physics and Analysis (ESREF 2008).
As is known, during debug and testing of an IC, a commercially available testing platform, such as, e.g., Automated Testing Equipment, also known as an Automated Testing and Evaluation (ATE) tester, is used to generate test patterns (also referred to as test vectors) to be applied to the IC device under test (DUT). Various systems and methods can then be used to test the response of the DUT to the test vectors. One such method is generally referred to as emission microscopy. Emission microscopy collects the photon emission generated inside an integrated circuit. Emission microscopy includes static emission microscopy, when photons are emitted when the signal applied to the DUT is static, and dynamic emission microscopy, when the signal applied to the DUT causes devices inside the DUT to be active, i.e., switch. Thus, in emission microscopy no illumination is used during the actual testing period. Conversely, other method utilize illumination for the testing, such as, e.g., laser voltage probing (LVP). When a laser-based system such as an LVP is used for probing, the DUT is illuminated by the laser and the light reflected from the DUT is collected by the probing system. As the laser beam strikes the DUT, the laser beam is modulated by the response of various elements (switching transistors) of the DUT to the test vectors. This has been ascribed to the electrical modulation of the free carrier density, and the resultant perturbation of the index of refraction and absorption coefficient of the material of the IC, most commonly silicon. Accordingly, analysis of the reflected light provides information about the operation of various devices in the DUT.
Emission microscopy system utilizes most of the elements of laser-based systems, since even in emission microscope illumination such as laser illumination is used for navigation and imaging of the DUT. Accordingly, a short description of a laser-based microscope is provided below, with the understanding that much of the description is equally applicable to emission system.
FIG. 1 is a general schematic depicting major components of an optical probing system architecture, 100, according to the prior art. In FIG. 1, dashed arrows represent optical path, while solid arrows represent electronic signal path. The optical paths represented by curved lines are generally made using fiber optic cables. Probe system 100 comprises a laser source which, in this particular example, is a dual laser source, DLS 110, an optical bench 112, and data acquisition and analysis apparatus 114. The optical bench 112 includes provisions for mounting the DUT 160.
A conventional ATE tester 140 provides stimulus signals and receives response signals 142 to/from the DUT 160 and may provide trigger and clock signals, 144, to the time-base board 155. The signal from the tester is generally transferred to the DUT via test boards, DUT board (adapter plate) and various cables and interfaces that connect all of these components. Generally, the ATE and the optical probing systems are produced and sold by different and unrelated companies. Thus, the reference to the description of embodiments of the inventive system relate only to the optical probing system and not to the ATE. That is, the ATE is not part of the optical probing system 100.
Turning back to the optical probing system 100, the time-base board 155 synchronizes the signal acquisition with the DUT stimulus and the laser pulses. Workstation 170 controls as well as receives, processes, and displays data from the signal acquisition board 150, time-base board 155, and the optical bench 112.
The various elements of probing system 100 will now be described in more detail. Since temporal resolution is of high importance in some testing of DUT's, the embodiment of FIG. 1 utilizes prior art pulsed lasers, wherein the laser pulse width determines the temporal resolution of the system. Dual laser source 110 consists of two lasers: a pulsed mode-locked laser, MLL 104, source that is used to generate 10-35 ps wide pulses, and a continuous-wave laser source, CWL 106, that can be externally gated to generate approximately 1 us wide pulses. The MLL 104 source runs at a fixed frequency, typically 100 MHz, and must be synchronized with the stimulus 142 provided to the DUT 160, via a phase-locked loop (PLL) on the time-base board 155, and the trigger and clock signals 144 provided by the ATE tester. The output of the DLS 110 is transmitted to the optical bench 112 using fiber optics cable 115. The light beam is then manipulated by beam optics 125, which directs the light beam to illuminate selected parts of the DUT 160.
The beam optics 125 consists of a Laser Scanning Microscope (LSM 130) and beam manipulation optics (BMO 135). The specific elements that are conventional to such an optics setup, such as objective lens, etc., are not shown. Generally, BMO 135 consists of optical elements necessary to manipulate the beam to the required shape, focus, polarization, etc., while the LSM 130 consists of elements necessary for scanning the beam over a specified area of the DUT. In addition to scanning the beam, the LSM 130 has vector-pointing mode to direct and “park” the laser beams to anywhere within the field-of-view of the LSM and Objective Lens. The X-Y-Z stage 120 moves the beam optics 125 relative to the stationary DUT 160. Using the stage 120 and the vector-pointing mode of the LSM 130, any point of interest on the DUT 160 may be illuminated and probed. In emission mode, the beam optics collects photons emitted from selected area of the DUT, e.g., using the parking mode of the LSM.
For probing the DUT 160, the ATE 140 sends stimulus signals 142 to the DUT, in synchronization with the trigger and clock signals provided to the phase-locked loop on the time-base board 155. The phase-lock loop controls the MLL 104 to synchronize its output pulses to the stimulus signals 142 to the DUT, or synchronizes the clock signal to the photon detection to provide time-resolved photon emission. MLL 104 emits laser pulses that illuminate a particular device of interest on the DUT that is being stimulated. The reflected or emitted light from the DUT is collected by the beam optics 125, and is transmitted to photodetector 138 via fiber optic cable 134. The emitted or reflected beam changes character (e.g., intensity) depending on the reaction of the device to the stimulus signal.
Incidentally, to monitor incident laser power, for purposes of compensating for laser power fluctuations, for example, optical bench 112 provides means to divert a portion of MLL 104 incident pulse to photodetector 136 via fiber optic cable 132.
The output signal of the photosensors 136, 138, is sent to signal acquisition board 150, which, in turn, sends the signal to the controller 170. By manipulation of the phase lock loop on the time-base board 155, controller 170 controls the precise time position of MLL 104 pulses with respect to DUT 160 stimulus signals 142. By changing this time position and monitoring the photosensors signals, the controller 170 can analyze the temporal response of the DUT to the stimulus signals 142. The temporal resolution of the analysis is dependent upon the width of the MLL 104 pulse.
It is also known in the art to perform continuous wave LVP, wherein a continuous wave laser is used to illuminate a device on the DUT and the continuously reflected light is collected. The continuously reflected light contains timing information relating to the response, i.e., switching, of the active device to various stimulus signals. The reflected light signal is continuously converted into electrical signal by a photodetector, e.g., avalanche photodiode (APD), and is amplified. The timing information is contained within the electrical signal and represents detected modulation of the device, which can then be displayed in either the time-domain using an oscilloscope or in the frequency domain using a spectrum analyzer.
Several issues complicate probing of DUT's, especially in view of shrinking dimensions following Moore's Law. Among the issues is identifying malfunctioning devices. That is, with the shrinking dimensions and lowering of operational voltage, it becomes more difficult to identify malfunctioning devices, either because the light emission is too faint or because light modulation is to small compared to background noise. Another issue is localizing the faulty device. That is, even if it is determined that a certain area of the DUT includes a faulty device, due to the density of devices it is difficult to know exactly where or which is the faulty device. A further issue is identifying the type of fault, so as to assist in the fault analysis. For example a faulty transistor may be overloaded or saturated. In this respect, one type of fault is when a transistor that continues to conduct as in an overloaded state. This can be caused by several mechanisms, one such being a low gate voltage. This phenomenon is referred to herein as “tristate”.
Thus, advanced technology is needed in the art to assist in identifying, localizing and classifying faulty devices. In this respect, it should be noted that the general nomenclature used in the art is somewhat confusing. That is, an integrated circuit (IC) chip being tested is referred to in the art as device under test (DUT). The chip, of course, is made up of millions of electronic elements, such as transistors, diodes, etc. These are also referred to as devices. Thus, when needed to avoid confusion, the DUT will be referred to herein as IC, while the electronic elements as devices.